What I learned about crowdfunding

As many of you know, I recently set up a JustGiving page to make some money for Cancer Research UK. It’s been a really interesting experience, because I’ve realised in short order how similar it is to using a crowdfunding site to raise money for your music, in terms of strategies and promotion.

For anyone unfamiliar with the concept, crowdfunding is a way for people to raise money for projects. New films, albums, charitable events, inventions… it’s basically limitless. If you have an idea, and enough people like it, you can raise money to help you do it. You can offer incentives to encourage people to finance you, and generally having a crowdfunding campaign can be an excellent way to focus your efforts on your project. Crowdfunding platforms can be general (http://www.indiegogo.com/) or specific to music (http://www.akamusic.com/ or https://www.sellaband.com/ for example). There is a definite skill to being successful on these platforms, and a smattering of luck helps too, but you can give yourself a good start with some simple tips.

1) The first and foremost thing to consider is that your profile needs to be clear, concise and interesting. You need to tell your story clearly and quickly, but also draw interest and attention. You need to think of it as writing a business pitch so that visitors to your site can see exactly what you are planning to do, and why.

2) Use pictures, video and music! After a fairly impressively failed campaign on Sellaband one of the things I realised was that I just didn’t have enough good quality material to use. The harsh reality is that even though ostensibly you are raising money to help you release that album or make that film professionally, your demos must ALREADY be as close to professional as you can make them without funding. There is so much user friendly software available now that even the most uninformed bedroom musician can knock up a pretty professional sounding demo in short order, and it’s what your potential investors are expecting. They won’t take you seriously unless you do.

If you really lack the skills for home recording, video making or photography, rope in a mate. Recently the press published the story that there are actually only 4 degrees of separation between all of us on the planet…. in terms of probability,  it’s extremely likely that you know someone who knows someone who can help. Offer pizza, beer, chocolate, wine or *insert other suitable bribe here, and you’re away. Or talk to a local college and get a film student or photography student to help you for their portfolio. That is also a handy way to get cheap/free session musicians.

Also in relation to making sure you have enough material, either make sure you are reliably prolific and can produce a high volume of good quality work quickly, or build up a catalogue and release them to your profile slowly over time. People respond really well to regular updates especially if there are new songs to hold their interest. Which leads me to point 3.

3) Update, update, update. Stay in touch with  your investors and potential investors. I saw a lot of projects fail on Sellaband because the profiles were set up and then just left. Often, people might not invest immediately but will watch your profile to see how much activity is going on, if you don’t update, they’ll drift away to another more active fundraiser. Even if you haven’t got a lot to say, say something. “Good morning all, it’s a beautiful day and I’m doing lots of songwriting…” – that sort of thing. Anything is better than radio silence.

4) Target friends and family first, as an empty profile won’t get investors yet. In fact, the first person who should invest in you, is YOU. Get that balance off the £0 mark, as soon as you can. Encourage friends and family to invest and ask people to spread the word. And be prepared for a long slog. This is not an easy road.

Finally what I would say is that crowdfunding on the big platforms (Sellaband, AKA etc) is probably not a good plan if you are a relative unknown. You might be better off doing what I did, and self releasing an album, for a few hundred pounds and build up a following. Waiting to use a crowdfunding platfom until you have an established a solid fanbase not only increases your chances of success, but the process of building your fanbase will help you learn how to manage your crowdfunding campaign once it gets started

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